News - Book Reviews
News - Book Reviews

Derek B. Miller’s NORWEGIAN BY NIGHT was reviewed in Heeb Magazine under “Books We Loved,” saying, “Imagine Philip Roth coming out of retirement, inventing a protagonist that’s less his alter ego and writing a fast-paced thriller.” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published the book May 21, 2013.

Choire Sicha’s VERY RECENT HISTORY: AN ENTIRELY FACTUAL ACCOUNT OF A YEAR (c. AD 2009) IN A LARGE CITY was reviewed by The New Yorker, which said, “A certain anesthetized quality to Sicha’s prose serves to underscore the sense of trauma that is daily urban life in a late-capitalist moment, and there is a flinty wit that highlights the memorable moments of resistance.” HarperCollins published the book August 6, 2013.

SISTER MOTHER HUSBAND DOG (etc.) by Delia Ephron was included in the list of “10 Titles to Pick Up Now” in the October 2013 issue of O Magazine, which called it a “sparkling collection.” The book was reviewed in the September 15th issue of the New York Times Book Review. The review said “the book builds in gravity and heft to finish gorgeously” and calls the book “a valentine…about love loss and all that is irreplaceable.”

Wayne Koestenbaum’s MY 1980’s AND OTHER ESSAYS was reviewed in Slate, calling it a “motley collection of auto-ethnographic idylls, aesthetic pleas, artistic amicus briefs, Oulipian exercises, and cheek-reddening dream journals…What Wayne brings to the caravan is some serious humanities erudition and, more important, a level of commitment.” Farrar, Straus & Giroux published the book August 13, 2013.

Larry Watson’s LET HIM GO was reviewed in Star Tribune, Boswell’s, Pioneer Press, The Gazette, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Publishers Weekly named it a Big Indie Book of Fall 2013 and Huffington Post Books named it a Best New Book for the Week, calling it “slyly suspenseful, highly engaging.” The Gazette said, “In addition to the beauty of the writing, LET HIM GO offers a stirring portrait of a long marriage.” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted its “deservedly powerful climax.”

Jim Gavin’s MIDDLE MEN was named one of the Best Books of 2013 So Far by Esquire, which called him “the second coming of Denis Johnson” and said, “These sad, funny stories about nowhere men — some young, some bent-backed, all pained and searching for something they'll never find — knocked me out …these short stories will transport you, will educate you, will entertain you, will fill you with fear and laughter and sadness.” Simon & Schuster published the book on February 19, 2013.

Choire Sicha’s VERY RECENT HISTORY was reviewed in The Millions, which called it “a beautifully written and carefully documented (and often very funny) book about a group of people that, to our society’s collective detriment, continues to be largely ignored, dismissed, and stereotyped.” Sicha was also interviewed in Salon, Slate, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Pacific Standard. HarperCollins published the book on August 6, 2013.
Manuel Gonzales’ THE MINIATURE WIFE was named one of the Best Books of 2013 So Far by Esquire, which said, “It's easy to compare Manuel Gonzales to George Saunders, but it would be just as easy to compare him to Borges or Márquez or Aimee Bender…He makes the extraordinary ordinary, and his playfulness is infectious.” Riverhead published the book on January 10, 2013.

LOSS OF INNOCENCE received a positive review in the August 2013 issue of Booklist. The review called LOSS OF INNOCENCE “an appealing family drama set against the backdrop of a radically tumultuous and influential time.” Quercus will publish the book in the U.S. on October 1, 2013.

Choire Sicha’s VERY RECENT HISTORY: AN ENTIRELY FACTUAL ACCOUNT OF A YEAR (c. AD 2009) IN A LARGE CITY was reviewed by the Atlantic, the New York Observer, and Flavorwire, which also named it a “Staff Pick Favorite Cultural Thing of the Week” and published “25 Essential Works of LGBT Nonfiction" Inspired by the book, saying, “Very Recent History follows a long tradition of providing a window into a very specific and often underrepresented community.”